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The “transparent car driver”? Car toll raises privacy concerns

Last week, Germany’s Federal Minister of Transport, Alexander Dobrindt, presented a new draft law introducing a car toll and allowing for recordings of vehicle number plates for the purpose of electronic toll payment. The draft law allows a state organ to collect, process and use various kinds of data, including the vehicle number plate, name, bank details and address of the vehicle owner and the place and time of payment. The Ministry has said that access to this data is needed to check the conditions of the right to reimbursement provided by the draft law and has offered assurances that the data will not be transmitted to other state authorities or used for any other purposes. Many privacy lawyers and activists however are very sceptical about the constitutionality of the draft fearing that it effectively introduces a driver surveillance system. It is likely that the draft law will be challenged in the German Federal Constitutional Court (BVerfG).

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